10 INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 



some of the lower Cryptogams the impregnating bodies preserve 

 aa animal type, and it is to be observed that direct proof of 

 the function of these bodies has been elicited amongst Alga?, in 

 the first instance by Thuret,* and afterwards by Pringsheimf 

 and his followers. Where the flagelliform appendages charac- 

 teristic of spermatozoids disappear, as in Lichens and Fungr, 

 there is still molecular motion ; and if Leptomitus (or as it is 

 sometimes called Saprolegnia, Achlya, &c.), as I believe 

 to be the case, is a true Fungal, even amongst these we shall 

 have the animalcular form. 



7. A fourth distinction of equal importance with the last is 

 the absence, in general, of everything, so far as the spores 

 are concerned, in the shape of an embryo.]: In every case 

 the spores consist of one or more cells composed of two or 

 more membranes inclosing a grumous mass, or occasionally 



Fig 6. 



a Spoi-es of Coleosporium pingue, L6v. magnified, shewing several 

 germinating points arranged symmetrically. 



b Ditto of Podisoma fusmim, magnified as observed by myself and 

 Mr. Browne.§ 



* Thuret, Eecherclies sur la ffecondation des Fuoacees, suivies d'ob- 

 servations sur les Anth&'idies des Algues. Ann. d. So. Nat., S6r. iv., 

 vol. 2, p. 273. 



f Pringsheim in Monatsbericht der Kon. Preuss. Ak. zu Berlin, 

 March, 1855, p. 133. 



X If, however, by an embryo is meant a young plant ready formed, 

 and only waiting for the evolution of its parts, we cannot deny that the 

 spores of many of the lower Algse and of such fungi as Antennaria 

 liohinsonii, Mont., conta,in an embryo. In the latter case, however, the 

 mode of reproduction is not apparently normal. 



§ Gard. Chron., 1849, p. 261. Ann of Nat. Hist., Ser. 2, vol iii, p. 531. 

 The woodcut of both these fungi was prepared before the appearance of 

 Tulasne's second memoir on the Uredin6es. 



